Chapter Forty-One
Kit smiled, tail sweeping from side to side in excited swishes. Hooking, curling, then swishing the other way to hook again.
“They are healthy, yes?” Kit checked.
Nick stared at the bushes in a state of shock.
Never mind healthy, they were huge! “Coffee plants take five years to produce beans, how on earth?” He examined the branches to make sure that he hadn’t mistaken the bush for a foreign local plant.
But no, he hadn’t. He peered closely at a bundle of harvest-ready red cherries.
Kit leaned in alongside him, chest pressed against Nick’s arm. He spoke in a conspiratorial tone. “I fertilised the plants with the god’s ashes. I believe that helped.”
Nick dropped his hands, casting a disbelieving look over his shoulder. “You didn’t.”
Kit bore an expression like he didn’t see the problem, jaw set, eyes bright and challenging.
Nick tried to adapt his dad’s mindset of accepting things as they were, something he’d got better at over the past few months.
But some things, like his boyfriend fertilising their coffee plants with a corpse, stretched that acceptance to its utmost limits.
Still. Nick’s gaze was drawn back to the brilliant red cherries, wonder slowly overcoming his horror.
“Do you know how long I’ve been trying to grow one of these at home?
I’ve planted coffee plants in greenhouses, next to heaters, next to sunlamps, on top of radiators—I’ve tried everything; they wouldn’t even sprout.
And this—ah, this is just amazing. Can we brew a cup? ”
Kit nodded eagerly.
“One cup can be made from one hundred cherries,” Nick explained. He had three books on the yacht detailing the entire process start-to-finish, but he had them read and memorised already.
“I will fetch a container.” Kit was gone only seconds.
Nick marvelled at the size of the cherries as he picked them, delighted as they counted out two hundred, and it seemed they’d hardly made a dent at all in the remaining cherries.
“The average tree produces two thousand cherries in a harvest, but I feel like there’s more than that here.
” Nick looked admiringly at the branches heavy with their bounty.
Inside, they worked together to free the beans from the cherries, clean them, and get them roasting in the oven. Kit kept the back doors open wide to keep the room from overheating with the stove fire burning. Nick leaned against the counter, staring outside.
“I didn’t realise you still had the plants,” he said. “I assumed after we were taken from the ship, that was it. They were gone.” He grinned. “Mini, right?”
“Mini,” Kit confirmed.
After the beans were roasted, Nick ground them in a mortar and pestle, and Kit fetched a tea filter to repurpose. The boiled water darkened to a rich brown. A nutty aroma filled the air, and Kit shut his eyes, breathing in deeply.
“Some people add milk and sugar to sweeten it.” Nick lifted the nearest cup, breathing in the scent alongside Kit. He was overly impatient as he waited for it to cool enough to sip. When it did, Nick groaned in delight, the flavour rich and sharp on his tongue. “It’s perfect.”
Kit sipped too, his tail twitching. His expression showed immediate pleasure. “It is good,” he agreed. He took another exploratory sip. “I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything like it.”
Nick studied Kit’s expression, deciding whether he was being polite or not. But Kit’s tail swished happily, and his face was honest. And really, he didn’t think Kit was particularly suited to telling lies. His body was too expressive.
They sat together at the table, drinking the coffee.
“How has it been?” Nick asked.
Kit studied Nick over his cup. “Easier than I anticipated.” His lips tugged down.
“I do not forgive Valor for handing you over to Desre, but I admit he knows how to lead. He operates the city as he did his stables, and it goes smoothly. None are left starving. None have been punished for any role they performed for the council.”
Of course Valor wouldn’t punish past deeds. Not when Kit had done more to earn punishment than any other.
“Did he offer you a role?” Nick asked.
Kit nodded.
“Which you refused.”
Kit nodded again. “For now, I have been working at the school, but I plan to arrange trading trips again soon. They are excellent opportunities for young kits to put their skills to the test. I will have the freedom now to allow them to make their own deals, try ideas and learn. Many young kits return with renewed enthusiasm for training once they have seen for themselves where it will serve them, and some redirect towards other interests.” Kit’s gaze slid to the counter where he’d set aside a coffee bean that he neither roasted nor crushed.
“This looks the same as what you offered me in Vi’s home. I can plant it?”
“I doubt it will grow as fast without those ashes to fertilise it.”
“I have the rest of the ashes stored. And the water that remained at the bottom of the well; I used that too,” Kit said, fastidious.
Nick leaned away from him and groaned. “I can’t believe you.”
“I wanted them to grow.” Kit’s tail swished.
“You get headaches without this drink, do you not? Though I will need to plant several more so that you can have a cup each morning.” Kit strode to his desk, turning over a fresh leaf of paper and quickly jotting down sums on it.
His blue eyes slid over the coffee plants through the wide-open doors leading outside, assessing.
Nick joined Kit, peering at the sums. Counting how many plants he’d need? He wanted to hug him but settled for sliding his hand up Kit’s tail, where he knew touch wasn’t unwelcome. Kit’s spine arched, a shiver trembling through his body. His attention slid to Nick.
“What about why I left?” Nick asked. “How has that been?”
Kit’s expression veered into annoyance, then panic, then settled into worry.
He was tense as he dropped his quill and straightened.
“I understand you have obligations. I do not understand why we had to be parted.” He paused.
“I thought about what you told me, but my feelings have not changed. But you? Were you with Finley in your absence?”
“No. I wasn’t.” He leaned against Kit’s desk.
Their eyes met, lantern light illuminating Kit’s face in a soft glow. “Do you still feel attached to me?” Kit mirrored the wording Nick had used when he explained why he was leaving.
“Yes, I do.”
Kit’s shoulders slumped in relief. He cupped Nick’s cheeks, holding his face as he began to scent-mark his face, a purr rumbling from his chest as he did.
Nick shut his eyes, holding still for Kit. “I’m glad that you still feel the same. I was afraid that I’d come back and you’d have changed your mind about us.”
Kit’s purr was interrupted by a displeased growl. “You were the one who insisted on leaving.”
“I came back.”
The growl quickly ended. Kit pressed his forehead to Nick’s, resting it there. Nick’s eyes were shut, and he breathed deep, drawing that ochre musk that he’d missed deep into his lungs. “I kept waking up with this smell in my nose. Did you know you could dream smells? Because I didn’t.”
“Will you stay this time?”
“My next year at college starts in three months.”
Kit tensed.
“It’s my final year, and it’s important to me that I finish it.
But the last three months have been torture, so being apart for so long…
I don’t want to do that again. I was hoping this time, you’d come with me.
” Nick pulled back far enough to meet Kit’s eyes.
“Each semester runs for twelve weeks, and then –”
Kit was already nodding.
Nick smiled. “I’ll set you up teaching. Laurence is being stubborn.
He’s promised to get along with you, but I have a feeling he’s just biding his time, so if you’d be up for offering him lessons on how to use those swords over there, I bet he’d cave in under an hour.
” Nick thought of the antics at Vi’s house.
“Even Jasper won’t teach him. I think they’re all too scared of accidentally hurting him and pissing off Connor.
” If Kit could work the magic that had his students chasing after him, star-struck, Laurence might stop his pouting.
“I will offer. And Connor? Trevor? How would you advise I placate them?” Kit nuzzled the side of Nick, his lick turning into a nibble turning into gentle sucking.
“Trevor couldn’t come this time, so it’s just Connor.
Connor… Maybe if there’s some books lying around?
Fiction. Adventure stories. He’s actually okay.
I think because he’s…ah…” Kit’s mouth found a bundle of nerves beneath Nick’s ear to tease.
His eyelids fluttered shut on a groan. “Because—Kit, you’re distracting me.
” Nick breathed out hard, his trousers becoming too tight.
Kit’s gloved hand slid down to cup Nick’s bulge.
He grabbed the edge of the desk, waiting as Kit undid the tie of his trousers, tugging the strings open.
His tail caught Nick’s calf, tightening in little pulses.
“There is a kit that does piercings.” Kit’s mouth travelled up, kissing the shell of Nick’s ear between words.
“I inquired about proper care and have a cleaning solution that you may use.”
Kit’s lips moved on, leaving a dozen kisses along his neck and jaw as his hands slid beneath Nick’s undone trousers and pushed them down.
Leather met bare skin, and Kit pulled back with an irritated grunt.
He ripped the gloves off and tossed them aside, diving back in with bare hands against Nick’s smooth, hair-free skin.
Kit went still.
He immediately pulled back again and peered down. Nick cracked open an eye to see Kit’s expression going from confused to aroused. “You are –” Kit swallowed hard. “It is dangerous to have a blade so close to your cock.” Every word of caution was turned-on.
“I did have some trouble with it,” Nick agreed.
Kit’s eyes snapped up. “Did someone assist you? Like with the piercings?”